


Plan B

by caffeine-vaccine (HashtagLEH)



Series: Tactics From the Isle (And How They Carry Over Into Auradon) [4]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Alliances, Awesome Ben (Disney: Descendants), Confused Ben (Disney: Descendants), Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, Movie: Descendants (2015), Multi, Nice Audrey Rose (Disney), Not Canon Compliant, Plotting, Waffles, d1 rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22251319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/caffeine-vaccine
Summary: “Always good to have a Plan B,” Jay sang.“That’s where our parents went wrong,” Carlos agreed. “Relying too much on Plan A to take them to the end.”“But we’re better than that,” Mal declared.
Relationships: Evie & Jay & Mal & Carlos de Vil, pre- Ben/Evie/Jay/Mal/Carlos de Vil
Series: Tactics From the Isle (And How They Carry Over Into Auradon) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600366
Comments: 3
Kudos: 333





	Plan B

“I always knew that Auradon had more stuff than the Isle, but I never thought it was _this_ much,” Mal told the other three as they examined the breakfast spread their first morning at Auradon Prep. Evie hummed in agreement, fingers trailing over an oblong yellow fruit that they didn’t know the name of before she took one from the bunch of them in the bowl.

Suddenly Carlos slapped Jay’s arm several times, trying to wordlessly get his attention. The older boy almost snapped at him to cut it out and give him his own punch to the arm for good measure, before he saw what he was pointing at and his mouth dropped.

“Jam!” he exclaimed, snatching it up from the table. “And the jar is _full_ , guys!”

“That jam looks different,” Evie said, peering at the jar suspiciously. “It’s darker.”

“This better not be another situation with the ‘marmite’ jam,” Mal warned, leaning in closer and snatching the jar from Jay’s hand to read the label that was still on it rather than the faded, peeled away ones they’d gotten before. Jay let her, though it was very grudgingly.

“Rasp-berry,” she read, before popping the lid off and sticking the tip of her finger in, licking it to check the flavor for everyone else. Her eyes lit up with pleasure and she handed it back to Jay.

“It’s good,” she declared. “I’m going to go and get some of the bread that looks like sewer grates so we can have some of that.”

In less than a minute, she was back from the other end of the table, bearing a plate of the strangely shaped bread for them all to share. While she had been gone, Evie had fetched a plate of white round disks with yellow circles in the center and Jay had grabbed a knife for the jam. Carlos kept watch over their spot at the table that was empty except for them, making sure that no one tried stealing anything the others had left behind.

They were all contentedly eating their strange bread with the sweet jam on top when the princess from the day before – Audrey – came and sat at their table. They were all instantly wary, watching her to see what she wanted.

“Hi,” she said in a chipper voice. She had a plate with something unidentifiable on it – something fluffy and yellow – and a glass full of an orange liquid in her other hand. “How’d you guys sleep?”

“Like Sleeping Beauty herself,” Mal said dryly, causing Evie to shoot her a chastising look. Audrey blinked at her, but didn’t get as upset as they had all mostly expected at the comment.

“I wish I could do that,” she said easily, stabbing the fluffy yellow stuff with her fork. “With the first day of school being today, I never sleep the night before. Got any tips?”

“Put one of your allies on watch,” Jay shrugged, shoving the last bite of bread in his mouth and reaching for another from the plate.

Audrey was visibly confused. “How on earth is _that_ supposed to help?”

“Because then you train yourself only to wake up from their presence or their voice,” Carlos said matter-of-factly. “It lets your brain block out excess noise so that you can sleep.”

“Oh,” Audrey said blankly. “But I don’t think I’m in danger. I just get nervous for the new term.”

Evie nodded understandingly. “Don’t worry, you’re pretty. People like you.”

Audrey blinked at her, looking a little alarmed and a lot confused. “…Thanks.”

Ben appeared then, breaking the weird tableau they had going on between them, and he sat next to Audrey, right across from Carlos.

“Hi!” he said brightly. “I take it you all like waffles?”

“Is that what these are?” Mal said, slathering another one with jam. “We were just calling them grid bread.”

“Grid bread,” Ben repeated with a chuckle. “I like it.”

“You don’t know what waffles are?” Audrey said incredulously.

Jay returned her weird look with one of his own. “Did you miss the memo where the food we get comes from Auradon’s garbage?”

“ _What_?” Audrey said, turning to shoot Ben an offended look. “Did _you_ know that?”

“I found out last night,” Ben admitted.

“But…but…” Audrey sputtered.

“You can’t seriously tell us that you didn’t know,” Mal said flatly. “You’re about to be _king_. How do you not know the affairs that go on in your kingdom?”

“There were supposed to be shipments!” Ben protested. “When the Isle was first formed, Auradon sent over animals and seeds and things, so that the Villains could make farms and become self-sustaining. I didn’t know that our trash was sent to the Isle, let alone that that’s what you relied on for food!”

“The land is poisoned,” Carlos explained, giving them a look like this was obvious enough that they should know it already. “Even if they _did_ try planting anything, it would die.”

“Poisoned,” Ben repeated, a single-word request for him to explain.

“The barrier?” Carlos reminded him. “It contains the Villains, but it also contains all the accumulated pollution since its creation.”

“I think I need to study up more on the effects of magical spells,” Ben mumbled.

Jay snorted suddenly. “Besides, picture in your mind the original Villains pruning trees. Doesn’t add up, right? Not going to turn them into farmers no matter _what_ you send over, even if the dirt was fine for it.”

“Hypothetically, don’t you think if they were desperate enough for food that they would get down and do it anyway?” Audrey said. “I’m a Princess, and I would.”

Jay snorted again. “ _No_ ,” he stressed. “They would have kids to send about to do their work _for_ them. You think it’s a coincidence there’s so many born right after they were sent there?”

“That’s barbaric,” Audrey said, horrified.

“No, that’s Isle life,” Mal corrected. Deciding to change the subject because this one was boring and going nowhere, she looked at Ben and said, “So, why exactly were we invited here?”

Ben looked at her confusedly. “Didn’t you see the invitation letter?” he said cluelessly.

“Oh, is that what invitations are like in Auradon?” Carlos snorted under his breath.

“My mother told us we’re coming to Auradon Prep and the next day your guys in black came to pick us up,” Mal told him. “But you can’t just want us to be icons for Goodness or whatever bullshit you told everyone else. If you’d wanted to kill us you wouldn’t have bothered with all the pomp and circumstance, and if you wanted to – I don’t know, join you in some Evil plan to take over the world, you wouldn’t have made it so public. So what gives? Also, why the four of us specifically?”

Said four were no longer eating, just watching Ben in wait for his answer, looking for anything that might tell them he was lying or only sharing half-truths.

To his credit, Ben seemed to understand that this was a genuine, serious question that they expected and needed an answer to, and he immediately gave them an honest response.

“Well, don’t go spreading this around because it’s not exactly public knowledge yet. But, I picked you four because I figured the most well-known Villains’ kids could be – not an icon, but a proof? My end goal is to bring all the Isle kids, the innocent ones who did nothing to deserve being there, back to Auradon so that they can live better lives. But people in Auradon are afraid, so I figured bringing just a few over, and showing everyone that you can be more than a Villain’s kid, would make them more willing to accept and welcome everyone else.”

“So we’re the guinea pigs,” Carlos summed up.

“Only to everyone else,” Ben said earnestly. “I know that all of you are capable of being more, that you’re not automatically your parents any more than we are ours.”

“Wait,” Mal cut off what Ben was going to say next. “Let me get this straight. If we can show everyone that we’re Good, you’ll be able to bring more kids from the Isle? How soon are we talking here?”

Ben shrugged. “I’m not certain of an exact timetable, but hopefully as quickly as possible. It’s not fair to leave all the kids over there – they’re innocent.”

Mal stared at him with an odd expression on her face, eyes wide, and expression matched by Evie and by Jay and Carlos, although to a lesser extent for the boys. Mal shared a look with her gang before rising to her feet.

“Well, it’s been fun,” she announced. “See you in class!”

And without any more than that, by unanimous, unspoken decision, they all picked up their bags and departed the cafeteria for parts unknown.

Audrey shared a bewildered look with Ben. “What was that about?”

Ben shrugged, equally clueless as he stared in the direction the four had gone. “I have no idea.”

***

“I think we could actually change our plan,” Mal announced as soon as the four of them were alone back in their dorm. There was only a half hour till class, but they really didn’t care about being late as much as the Auradon kids seemed to. After all, everyone expected them to break some rules anyway in the beginning, so why not take advantage and live up to that expectation?

“Because of Ben’s plan?” Evie guessed correctly.

Mal nodded. “You all heard what he said – it’s basically our plan, but it’s actually legal!”

“And it takes about seven times as long,” Jay groused.

“Yeah, and do we really want to rely on the goodwill of the Auradon people?” Carlos pointed out. “It’s a nice plan in theory, but it’s also incredibly naïve. Isle kids will never be accepted by people who remember our parents’ reign of terror.”

“I’m not saying completely halt our plan,” Mal denied immediately. “But maybe, put it on the backburner? See how it goes? I mean, the wand is pretty secure in the museum, and it will take a while to figure out if we can even get it from there, anyway. Maybe, in the meantime…we go along with Ben’s plan?”

“They’ll be suspicious if we immediately start acting like Auradon kids,” Evie warned.

Mal nodded in agreement. “So we make it look natural. Maybe a little grudging at first, like we were forced to come here…”

“Which we were,” Jay interjected.

“…and maybe make it look like we’re making friends with the prissy princesses as time goes on,” Mal finished. “And if Ben’s plan fails, then we go back to my plan, and the Auradonians will think we were just playing them and not think any more of it.”

“Always good to have a Plan B,” Jay sang.

“That’s where our parents went wrong,” Carlos agreed. “Relying too much on Plan A to take them to the end.”

“But we’re better than that,” Mal declared. “Because _we_ are rotten.”

Then, in a chorus, they said, “To the core.”


End file.
